“The High Price of a Clean Environment” Miles Bishop 4999 Critical Thinking February 24, 2008In today’s world companies are growing and expanding rapidly producing more and more, thus pushing more and more emissions, waste, and pollution into our environment. Now it is obvious for the most part regardless if one is rich or poor that an individual would prefer to live in a less polluted area than a more polluted one, but at what cost? Do all citizens, poor, rich, sick, or foreign, deserve to have these rights? The right to fresh water, clean air, up to date sewage treatment plants, and other basic environmental aspects do not come cheap or easy but usually at a high cost. Should we as the tax payers be held responsible for the costs of these rights or should environmental protection only be for the rich that can afford it? Should factories be built in lower class neighborhoods and cities where the aspects of environmental protection are only seen as luxury goods and not as rights for everyone? These questions have plagued economists and environmentalists for years because of its ethical and moral standpoint. As an economist, the environment is seen very differently than through other’s eyes. They view the environment as a composite asset that can provide loads of different materials and services. It is also crucial for all living organisms because it provides the life sustaining systems that keep everyone and everything alive. Helping the economy with raw materials, which in turn are transformed into consumer products that fund many businesses. It also provides services directly to the public such as the air we breathe, food and drink we consume to survive, and protection to help support our shelters. But it also provides us with the overall beauty of nature with sunsets, oceans, mountains, flowers, and much more that have no substitute or price.1 Because economists see the 1 Titenberg, Tom. “Environmental and Natural Resource Economics-7th editon.” Pearson Education and Addison Wesley Inc., 2006. Page 14-15, Concerning the concepts of valuing one’s environment.environment as an asset, they try to prevent its depreciation of value by keeping it clean or at least certain areas. Now the advantages of having a clean environment are easily seen by the work done to enforce it. The EPA or Environmental Protection Agency has been working with the president and many parts of government for many years raising money to keep the environment clean. In 2006 the senate along with George Bush approved a Interior-EPA spending bill totaling roughly $26.3 billion, and in 2007 to fund land, air, and water programs $26.1 billion were allocated to the EPA.2 The Office of Administrative Law Judges, a civil enforcement agency of the EPA, conducts hearings and makes decisions between the EPA and persons, businesses, government entities, and other organizations which are under environmental laws.3 The EPA also works with many federal agencies as well ass the state to investigate, apprehend, and punish any violators of environmental regulations. Punishments for many environmental crimes can include and vary from slight reprimands to long-term prison sentences.4 The main concern of the EPA is to help with the clean air and water acts that concern every individual on planet earth. The clean air acts helped to establish in 1970 the National Ambient Air Quality Standards for more than 6 pollutants. They focus on mobile emission sources like cars and buses and concentrate heavily upon stationary 2 Posner, Michael. “Senate Subcommittee Approves Interior-EPA Spending Bill.” National Journal Group, 2008. www.governmentexecutive.com Deals with government involvement in many parts of our lives, such as the environment. 3 www.EPA.com. Focusing on the many aspects of EPA Enforcement within the United States. 4 www.EPA.com. Focusing on the may aspects of EPA Violations and how they deal with them.sources such as factories or plants.5 The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 worked on and established regulations limiting industrial pollutant discharge capable of making it into many water sources. They initially require application of “best practicable control technology” and mandates future use of the “best available technology.”6 The EPA was created to help push environmental protection in order for everyone to live a clean and healthy life. We now see how much time, effort, and money is spent trying to help keep our environment clean and health conscience, but many times the costs of a clean environment are too much for some to bear. The quality of one’s surrounding environment is purely a luxury good or an economic good for which demand increases more proportionally as incomes rises.7 We see this based upon the cleanliness or health consciousness among many cities. The nicer areas of town are much cleaner and are better to look at while the poorer areas are much dirtier and less appealing. Wealthy cities seem to be more interested or concerned with environmental regulations to protect themselves from sickness or illnesses, and the poorer areas provide only basic human needs to survive.8 The idea that only the rich should and can afford environmental protection seems to cause much debate among economist and others. Many seem to think that everyone should be given the right to a clean life, but others seem to think that it should only come 5 Hazilla, Michael. Kopp, Raymond J. “Social Cost of Environmental Quality Regulations: A General Equilibrium Analysis.” The Journal of Political Economy, 1990. Page 856 dealing with Private Costs of Regulation. 6 Hazilla, Michael. Kopp, Raymond J. “Social Cost of Environmental Quality Regulations: A General Equilibrium Analysis.” The Journal of Political Economy, 1990. Page 856-7 dealing with the best practical outcomes of regulation. 7 www.wikipedia.com defining what a luxury good is to an economist. 8 Old Student Paper on Rainforests.with a high price. It may seem that the decision to give everyone a clean living space is clear but the decision making process is what brings us to a halt when understanding the ethical and financial aspects. Now there are many different ways to view this problem, but I will begin with the ideas and views of an economist. An as economist, we view actions or movements based upon the idea of consequentialism. This idea states that we